Strolling competition brings Greek organizations from across the state to Grounds

Event encourages unity among members of Multicultural Greek Council, National Panhellenic Council

In Friday's Battle Grounds event, Multicultural Greek Council and National Panhellenic Council groups from across the state faced off in a stepping competition.

The Battle Grounds Stroll Competition saw fraternities and sororities from the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Panhellenic Council battling it out last Friday. The event was hosted for the first time at the University by the Alpha Epsilon chapter of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity.

Strolling — a tradition that began in the early 1900s in the NPHC and was adopted by other Greek organizations — involves brothers or sisters of an organization dancing and stepping in a synchronized line. Third-year College student Andre Sanabia, chapter president of La Unidad Latina, organized the event to expose more people to this tradition.

“Often when people think Greek life, they think [of] the Inter-Fraternity Council and the Inter-Sorority Council because of the fact that there’s not a lot of visibility from the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Panhellenic Council,” Sanabia said. “So I think that one, this event was for visibility, and then two, it’s also just really fun.”

The competing teams included MGC and NPHC organizations from Old Dominion University and George Mason University, each group showing off a different personality to the crowd.

Melody Lee, a junior at George Mason and a member of Kappa Phi Lambda sorority, said she and her sisters enjoyed performing in front of an audience.

“We really enjoyed it,” Lee said. “I mean I think we did our best out there and we had a lot of fun, so we loved it. And we’ll probably definitely try to do it again next year.”

The grand prize of $200 went to the George Mason chapter of Pi Delta Psi fraternity.

Alex Wong, a member of Pi Delta Psi fraternity and president of the Multicultural Greek Council at George Mason, said winning the competition was a new and exciting experience for the members.

“We were only established [in] fall [of 2012] at George Mason, so we never really participate in a lot of big competitions, so this is actually our first win ever,” Wong said. “So it’s a pretty big feat for us. I’m just rejoicing [in] it right now.”

Despite the close competition, participants said unity was the most important part of the event.

“We have different talents in Greek life and [they don’t] have to be just community service or doing events,” Richard Washington, a senior at ODU and a member of the Nu Theta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, said. “We have different talents of dancing and all that type of stuff. It’s just good to see that everybody can do that regardless if you’re [in the] NPHC, PHC [or] Multicultural [fraternities].”